duties of his holy office, vigorously defending the Master's degree, and in 1694, quarelling with Sir position and privileges of his order, he positively William Temple, who coldly offered him a situplayed into the hands of infidelity by the steps ation worth 1007. a-year, he quitted his patron in he took, both in his conduct and writings, to ex- disgust and went at once to Ireland to take holy pose the caut and hypocrisy which he detested orders. He was ordained, and almost immedias heartily as he admired and practised unaffec-ately afterwards received the living of Kilroot in ted piety. To say that Swift lacked tenderness the diocese of Connor, the value of the living would be to forget many passages of his unac-being about equal to that of the appointinent of countable history that overflow with gentleness fered by Sir William Temple.

of spirit and mild humanity; but to deny that he exhibited inexcusable brutality where the softness of his nature ought to have been chiefly evoked-where the want of tenderness, indeed, left him a naked and irreclaimable savage-is equally impossible. If we decline to pursue the contradictory series further, it is in pity to the reader, not for want of materials at command. There is, in truth, no end to such materials.

Swift, miserable in his exile, sighed for the advantages he had abandoned. Sir William Temple, lonely without his clever and keen-witted companiou, piued for his return. The prebend of Kilroot was speedily resigned in favour of a poor curate for whom Swift had taken great pains to procure the presentation; and with 807. in his purse the independent clergyman proceeded once more to Moor-park. Sir William welcomed him with open arms. They resided together until 1699, when the great statesman died, leaving to Swift, in testimony of his regard, the sum of 1001. and his literary remains. The remains were duly published and humbly dedicated to the King. They might have been inscribed to His Majesty's cook for any advantage that accrued to the editor. Swift was a Whig, but his politics suffered severely by the neglect of His Majesty, who derived no particular advantage from Sir William Temple's "remains.”

Swift was born in the year 1667. His father, who was steward to the Society of the King's Inn, Dublin, died before his birth and left his widow penniless. The child, named Jonathan after his father, was brought up on charity. The obligation due to an uncle was one that Swift would never forget, or remember without inexcusable indignation. Because he had not been left to starve by his relatives, or because his uncle would not do more than he could, Swift conceived an eternal dislike to all who bore his name and a haughty contempt for all who partook of Weary with long and vain attendance upon his nature. He struggled into active life and Court, Swift finally accepted at the hands of presented himself to his fellow men in the tem- Lord Berkeley, one of the Lords Justices of Ireper of a foe. At the age of 14 he was admitted land, the rectory of Agher and the vicarages of into Trinity College, Dublin, and four years af- Laracor and Rathbeggan. In the year 1700 he terwards as a special grace-for his acquisitions took possession of the living at Laracor, and his apparently failed to earn the distinction-the mode of entering upon his duty was thoroughly degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon characteristic of the man. He walked down to him. In 1688, the year in which the war broke Laracor, entered the curate's house, and announout in Ireland, Swift, in his twenty-first year, ced himself "as his master." In his usual style and without a sixpence in his pocket, left college. he affected brutality, and having sufficiently Fortunately for him, the wife of Sir William alarmed his victims, gradually soothed and conTemple was related to his mother, and upon her soled them by evidences of undoubted friendliapplication to that statesman the friendless youth ness and goodwill. "This," says Sir Walter was provided with a home. He took up his Scott, "was the ruling trait of Swift's character abode with Sir William in England, and for the to others; his praise assumed the appearance space of two years laboured hard at his own im- and language of complaint; his benefits were provement and at the amusement of his patron. often prefaced by a prologue of a threatening naHow far Swift succeeded in winning the good ture." The ruling trait" of Swift's character opinion of Sir William may be learnt from the was morbid eccentricity. Much less eccentricity fact that when King William honoured Moor- has saved many a murderer in our days from the park with his presence he was permitted to take gallows. We approach a period of Swift's hispart in the interviews, and that when Sir Wil-tory when we must accept this conclusion or reliam was unable to visit the King his protégé was volt from the cold-blooded doings of a mouster. commissioned to wait upon His Majesty, and to During Swift's second residence with Sir Wilspeak on the patrou's authority and behalf. The liam Temple he had become acquainted with an lad's future promised better things than his be-iumate of Moor park very different to the accomginning. He resolved to go into the church.plished man to whose intellectual pleasures he so since preferment stared him in the face. In 1692 largely ministered. A young and lovely girlhe proceeded to Oxford, where he obtained his half ward, half dependeut in the establishment

very church which his book labored to exalt. None but an inspired madman would have attempted to do honour to religion in a spirit which none but the infidel could heartily approve. Politicians are not squeamish. The Whigs

engaged the attention and commanded the unti-girl, was not even this man's recreation. Imparing services of the newly-made minister. Es-tient of banishment, he went to London, and ther Johnson had need of education, and Swift mixed with the wits of the age. Addison, Steele, became her tutor. He entered upon his task with and Arbuthnot became his friends, and he quickly avidity, condescended to the humblest instruction, proved himself worthy of their intimacy by the and inspired his pupil with unbounded gratitude publication in 1704 of his Tale of a Tub. The and regard. Swift was not more insensible to success of the work, given to the world anonythe simplicty and beauty of the lady than she mously, was decisive. Its singular merit obtained to the kind offices of her master; but Swift for its author everlasting renown, and effectually would not have been Swift had he, like other prevented his rising to the highest dignity in the meu, returned everyday love with ordinary affection. Swift had felt tender impressions in his own fashion before. Once in Leicestershire he was accused by a friend of having formed an imprudent attachment, on which occasion he returned for answer, that "his cold temper and un-could see no fault in raillery and wit that might confined humour" would preveut all serious con- serve temporal interests with greater advantage sequences, even if it were not true that the con- than they had advanced interests ecclesiastical ; duct which his friend had mistaken for gallantry and the friends of the Revolution welcomed sa had been merely the evidence of an active and rare an adherent to their principles. With an restless temper, incapable of enduring idleness. affected ardour that subsequent events proved to and catching at such opportunities of amusement be as premature as it was hollow, Swift's pen as most readily occurred." Upon another occa- was put in harness for his allies, and worked vigsion, and within four years of the Leicestershire orously enough until 1709, when having assisted pastime, Swift made an absolute offer of his hand Steele in the establishment of the Tatler, the to one Miss Waryng, vowing in his declaratory | vicar of Laracor returned to Ireland and to the epistle that he would forego every prospect of duties of a rural pastor. Not to remain, bowinterest for the sake of his "Varina," and that "the lady's love was far more fatal than her cruelty." After much and long consideration Varina consented to the suit. That was enough for Swift. He met the capitulation by charging his Varina with want of affection by stipulating for unheard of sacrifices, and concluding with au expression of his willingness to wed, "though unexpectedly began to caress him. Escaping she had neither fortune nor beauty," provided every article of his letter was ungrudgingly agreed to. We may well tremble for Esther Johnson, with her young heart given into such wild keeping.

As soon as Swift was established at Laracor it was arranged that Esther, who possessed a small property in Ireland, should take up her abode near to her old preceptor. She came, and scandal was silenced by a stipulation insisted upon by Swift, that his lovely charge should have a matron for a constant companion, and never see him except in the presence of a third party. Esther was in her seventeenth year. The vicar of Laracor was on his road to forty. What wonder that even in Laracor the former should receive an offer of marriage, and that the latter, wayward and inconsistent from first to last, should deuy auother the happiness he had resolved never to enjoy himself? Esther found a lover whom Swift repulsed, to the infinite joy of the devoted girl, whose fate was already linked for good or evil to that of her teacher and friend.

ever! A change suddenly came over the spirit of the nation. Sacheverell was about to pull down by a single sermon all the popularity that Marlborough and his friends had built up by their glorious campaigns. Swift had waited in vain for promotion from the Whigs, and his suspicious were aroused when the Lord-Lieutenaut

the damage which the marked attentions of the old Government might do him with the new, Swift started for England in 1710, in order to survey the turning of the political wheel with his own eyes, and to try his fortune in the game. The progress of events was rapid. Swift reached Loudon on the 9th of September; on the 1st of October he had already written a lampoon upon an ancient associate; and on the 4th he was presented to Harley, the new Minister.

The career of Swift from this moment, and so long as the Government of Harley lasted, was maguificent and mighty. Had he not been crotchety from his very boyhood, his head would have been turned now. Swift reigned; Swift was the Government; Swift was Queen, Lords, and Commons. There was tremendous work to do, and Swift did it all. The tories had thrown out the Whigs, and had brought in a Government in their place quite as Whiggish to do Tory work. To moderate the wishes of the people, if not to blind their eyes, was the preliminary Obscurity and idleness were not for Swift. and essential work of the Ministry. They could Love, that gradually consumed the unoccupied not perform it themselves. Swift undertook

and accomplished it. He had intellect and cour- [ing them respectively under the heads "Ungrateage enough for that, and more. Moreover, he ful,” “Grateful,” “Indifferent,” and “Doubtful." had vehement passious to gratify, and they might Pope appears among the grateful, Queen Caroall partake of the glory of his success; he was line among the ungrateful. The audacity of proud, and his pride revelled in authority; be these distinctions is very edifying. What autowas ambitious, and his ambition could attain no crat is here for whose mere countenance the higher pitch than it found at the right hand of whole world is to bow down and be “grateful!” the Prime Minister; he was revengeful, and re- It is due to Swift's imperiousness, however, venge could wish no sweeter gratification than to state that, once acknowledged as an equal, he the contortions of the great who had neglected was prepared to make every sacrifice that could genius and desert, when they looked to them for he looked for in a friend. Concede his position, advancement and obtained nothing but cold ne-and for fortune or disgrace he was equally preglect. Swift, single-handed, fought the Whigs pared. Harley and Bolingbroke, quick to disFor seven months he conducted a periodical cern the weakness, called their invulnerable ally paper in which he mercilessly assailed, as none but himself could attack, all who were odious to the Government aud distasteful to himself; not an individual was spared whose sufferings could add to the tranquillity and permanence of the Government. Resistance was in vain, it was attempted, but invariably with one effect-the first wound grazed, the second killed.

by his Christian name, but stopped short of conferring upon him any benefit whatever. The neglect made no difference to the haughty scribe, who contented himself with pulling down the barriers that had been impertinently set up to separate him from rank and worldly greatness. But, if Swift shrank from the treatment of a client, he performed no part so willingly as that The public were in ecstasies. The laughers of a patron. He took literature under his wing were all on the side of the satirist, and how vast and compelled the Government to do it homage. a portion of the community these are, needs not He quarrelled with Steele when he deserted the be said. But it was not in the Examiner alone Whigs, and pursued his former friend with unthat Swift offered up his victims at the shrine of flinching sarcasm and banter, but at his request universal mirth. He could write verses for the Steele was maintained by the Government in rough heart of a nation to chuckle over and de- an office of which he was about to be deprived. light in. Personalities to-day fly wide of the Congreve was a Whig, but Swift insisted that mark; then they went right home. The habits. he should find honour at the hands of the Tories, the foibles, the moral and physical imperfections and Harley honoured him accordingly. Swift of humanity, were all fair game, provided the introduced Gay to Lord Bolingbroke, and secured shaft were tipped with gall as well as venom. that nobleman's weighty patronage for the poet. Short poems, longer pamphlets-whatever could Rowe was recommended for office, Pope for aid. help the Government and cover their foes with The well-to-do, by Swift's personal interest, ridicule and scorn, Swift poured upon the town found respect, the indigent money for the mitiwith an industry and skill that set eulogy at defi- gation of their pains. At Court, at Swift's inance. And because they did defy praise Jona-stigation, the Lord Treasurer made the first adthan Swift never asked, and was ever too grand vances to men of letters, and by the act made to accept it.

Commons to call out the First Secretary of State, whom Swift wished to inform that he would not dine with him if he meant to dine late?

tacit confession of the power which Swift so But he claimed much more. His disordered liberally exercised, for the advantage of everyyet exquisite intellect acknowledged no superi- body but himself, But what wordly distinction, ority. He asked no thanks for his labour, he in truth could add to the importance of a pordisdained pecuniary reward for his matchless and sonage who made it a point for a Duke to pay incalculable services-he did not care for fame, him the first visit, and who, on one occasion, but he imperiously demanded to be treated by publicly sent the Prime Minister into the House of the greatest as an equal. Mr. Harley offered him money, and he quarrelled with the Minister for his boldness. "If we let these great Ministers," he said, "pretend too much there will be no gov- A lampoon directed against the Queen's faerning them." The same Minister desired to vourite, upon whose red hair Swift had been famake Swift his chaplain. One mistake was as cetious, prevented the satirist's advancement in great as the other. "My Lord Oxford, by a England. The see of Hereford fell vacant in second hand, proposed my being his chaplain, 1712. Bolingbroke would now have paid the which I, by a second hand, refused. I will be debt due from his Government to Swift, but the no man's chaplain alive." The assumption of Duchess of Somerset, upon her knees, implored the man was more than regal. At a later period the Queen to withhold her consent from the apof his life he drew up a list of his friends, rank-pointment, and Swift was pronounced by Her

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Majesty as "too violent in party" for promotion. on one who loved him as to attend him upon his The most important man in the kingdom found melancholy journey." The same post brought himself in a moment the most feeble. The foun- him word that his own victory was won. tain of so much honour could not retain a drop of lingbroke triumphant besought his Jonathan, as the precious waters for itself. Swift, it is said, he loved his Queen, to stand by her Minister, and laid the foundations of fortune for upwards of 40 to aid him in his perilous adventure. Nothing families, who rose to distinction by a word from should be wanting to do justice to his loyalty. his lips. What a satire upon power was the sa- The Duchess of Somerset would be reconciled, tirist's own fate! He could not advance himself the Queen would be gracious, the path of housur in England one inch. Promotion in Ireland should lie broad, open, and unimpeded before began and ended with his appointment to the him. Bolingbroke and Harley were equally the Deanery of St. Patrick, of which he took possession, much to his disgust and vexation, in the summer of 1713.

friends of Swift. What could he do in his extremity? What would a million men, taken at random from the multitude, have done, had they The summer, however, was not over before been so situated, so tempted? Not that upon Swift was in England again. The wheels of which Swift, in his chivalrous magnanimity, at government had come to a dead lock, and of once decided. He abandoned the prosperous to course none but he could right them. The Min- follow and console the unfortunate. I meddle istry was at sixes and sevens. Its very exist- not with Lord Oxford's faults," is his noble lanence depended upon the good understanding of guage, "as he was a Minister of State, but his the chiefs, Bolingbroke and Harley, and the personal kindness to me was excessive. He diswily ambition of the latter, jarring against the tinguished and chose me above all men when he vehement desires of the former, had produced was great." Within a few days of Swift's selfjealousy, suspicion, and now threatened immedi- denying decision Queen Anne was a corpse, Boate disorganization. A thousand voices called lingbroke and Oxford both flying for their lives, the Dean to the scene of action, and he came and Swift himself hiding his unprotected head full of the importance of his mission. He plunged in Ireland amidst a people who at once feared at once into the vexed sea of political contro- and hated him. versy, and whilst straining every effort to court During Swift's visit to London, in 1710, he his friends, let no opportunity slip of galling their had regularly transmitted to Stella, by which foes. His pen was as damaging and industrious name Esther Johnson is made known to posas ever. It set the town in a fever. It caused terity, an account of his daily doings with the Richard Steele to be expelled the House of Com-new Government. The journal exhibits the view mons, and it sent the whole body of Scotch peers, of the writer that his conduct invariably pre- › headed by the Duke of Argyll, to the Queen, sents. It is full of tenderness and confidence, with the prayer that a proclamation might be is-and not without coarseness that startles and sued for the discovery of their libeller. Swift shocks. It contains a detailed and minute aewas more successful in his assaults than in his count, not only of all that passed between Swift mediation. The Ministers were irreconcilable. and the Government, but of his changeful feelVexed at heart with disappointment, the Dean, ings as they arose from day to day, and of his after his manner, suddenly quitted Loudon, and physical infirmities, that are commonly whispered shut himself up in Berkshire. One attempt he into the ear of the physician. If Swift loved Stella made in his strict seclusion to uphold the Gov-in the ordinary acceptation of the term, he took ernment and save the country, and the composi-small pains in his diary to elevate the sentiments tion is a curiosity in his way. He published a with which she regarded her hero. The journal proposition for the exclusion of all Dissenters is not in harmony throughout. Towards the from power of every kind, for disqualifying Whigs close it lacks the tenderness and warmth, the miand Low Churchmen for every possible office, nuteness and confidential utterance, that are so and for compelling the presumptive heir to the visible at the beginning. We are enabled to acthrone to declare his abomination of Whigs, and count for the difference. Swift had enlarged the his perfect satisfaction with Her Majesty's pres-circle of his female acquaintance whilst fighting ent advisers. Matters must have been near a for his friends in London. He had become a crisis when this modest pamphlet was put forth; constant visitor, especially, at the house of Mrs. and so they were. The intrigues of Bolingbroke Vauhomrigh, who had two daughters, the eldest had triumphed over those of his colleague, and of whom was about 20 years of age, and had Oxford was disgraced. The latter about to re- the same Christian name as Stella. Esther Vantire into obscurity addressed a letter to Swift, en- homrigh had great taste for reading, and Swift, treating him, if he were not tired of his former who seems to have delighted in such occupation. prosperous friend, "to throw away so much time condescended, for the second time in his life, to

become a young lady's instructor. The great malady. It was not difficult to ascertain it. His man's tuition had always eue effect upon his pu- indifference and public scandal, which spoke

pils. Before Miss Vanhomrigh had made much freely of their unaccountable connexion, were progress in her studies she was over head and alone to blame for her sufferings. It was enough ears in love, and, to the astonishment of her for Swift. He had passed the age at which he master, she one day declared the passionate and had resolved to marry, but he was ready to wed undying character of her attachment. Swift Stella provided the marriage were kept secret met the confession with a weapon far more po- and she was content to live apart. Poor Stella tent when opposed to a political foe, than when was more than content, but she over-estimated her directed against the weak heart of a doting wo-strength. The marriage took place, and immeman. He had recourse to raillery, but, finding diately afterwards the husband withdrew himself his banter of no avail, endeavor to appease the in a fit of madness, which threw him into gloom unhappy girl by "an offer of devoted and ever- and misery for days. What the motives may have lasting friendship, founded on the basis of virtu- been for the inexplicable stipulations of this wayous esteem." He might with equal success have ward man it is impossible to ascertain. That attempted to put out a conflagration with a they were the motives of a diseased, and at times bucket of cold water. There was no help for utterly irresponsible, judgment, we think cannot the miserable man. He returned to his dean be questioned. Of love as a tender passion, ery at the death of Queen Anne with two love Swift had no conception. His writings prove it. affairs upon his hands, but with the stern resolu-The coarseness that pervades his compositious tion of encouraging neither, and overcoming both. has nothing in common with the susceptibility Before quitting England he wrote to Esther that shrinks from disgusting and loathsome imaVanhomrigh, or Vanessa, as he styles her in his ges in which Swift revelled. In all his prose and correspondence, intimating his intention to forget poetical addresses to his mistresses, there is not everything in England and to write to her as sel- one expression to prove the weakness of his heart. dom as possible. So far the claims of Vanessa He writes as a guardian—he writes as a friend— were disposed of. As soon as he reached his he writes as a father, but not a syllable escapes deanery, he secured lodgings for Stella and her him that can be attributed to the pangs and decompanion, and reiterated his determination to lights of the lover. pursue his intercourse with the young lady upon the prudent terms originally established. So far his mind was set at rest in respect of Stella. But Swift had scarcely time to congratulate himself upon his plans before Vanessa presented herself in Dublin, and made known to the Dean her resolution to take up her abode permanently in Ireland. Her mother was dead, so were her two brothers; she and her sister were alone in the world, and they had a small property near Dublin, to which it suited them to retire. Swift, would appear that the Dean frequently visited alarmed by the proceeding, remonstrated, threat-the recluse in her retirement, and upon such ocened, denounced-all in vain. Vanessa met his casions Vanessa would plant a laurel or two in reproaches with complaints of cruelty and neg-honour of her guest, who passed his time with lect, and warned him of the consequences of the lady reading and writing verses in a rural leaving her without the solace of his frien Iship bower built in a sequestered part of her garden. and presence. Perplexed and distressed, the Some of the verses composed by Vanessa have Dean had no other resource than to leave events been preserved. They breathe the foud ardour to their own development. He trusted that time of the suffering maid, and testify to the imperwould mitigate and show the hopelessness of turbable coldness of the man. Of the innocence Vanessa's passion, and in the meanwhile he of their intercourse there cannot be a doubt. In sought, by occasional communication with her, 1720 Vanessa lost her last remaining relativeto prevent any catastrophe that might result from her sister died in her arms. Thrown back upon actual despair. But his thoughts for Vanessa's herself by this bereavement, the intensity of her safety were inimical to Stella's repose. She love for the Dean became insupportable. Jealpined and gradually sank under the alteration ous and suspicious, and eager to put an end to a that had taken place in Swift's deportment to- terror that possessed her, she resolved to address wards her since his acquaintance with Vanessa. herself to Stella, and to ascertain from her own Swift, really anxious for the safety of his ward, lips the exact nature of her relations with her requested a friend to ascertain the cause of her so called guardian. The momentous question

Married to Stella, Swift proved himself more eager than ever to give to his intercourse with Vanessa the character of mere friendship. He went so far as to endeavor to engage her affections for another man, but his attempts were rejected with indignation and scorn. In the August of the year 1717 Vanessa retired from Dublin to her house and property near Cellbridge. Swift exhorted her to leave Ireland altogether, but she was not to be persuaded. In 1720 it